「妳還不是神！」

(妳)(還)(不)(是)(神)

However, she understood what I wanted to say, so we discussed the difference between saying a project is complete or a person is complete.

Part of the challenge for an English speaker is the lack of helping verbs in Chinese grammar. Part of the challenge is to become familiar with the difference between words that look like they technically mean the same thing, but don’t quite.

Before we go further, let’s go over some of the vocabulary in the lesson:

生字生詞

ㄕㄥ ㄗˋ ㄕㄥ ㄘˊ

(shēng zì)(shēng cí)

(new character)(new word)

完成

ㄨㄢˊ ㄔㄥˊ

(wán chéng)

to complete, to accomplish

完全

ㄨㄢˊ ㄑㄨㄢˊ

(wán quán)

complete, whole, totally, entirely

好笑

ㄏㄠˇ ㄒㄧㄠˋ

(hǎo xiào)

laughable, funny, ridiculous

真好笑

ㄓㄣ ㄏㄠˇ ㄒㄧㄠˋ

(zhēn)(hǎo xiào)

(very)(funny)

好好笑喔

ㄏㄠˇ ㄏㄠˇ ㄒㄧㄠˋ ㄡ

(hǎo hǎo xiào)(ō)

so very funny + conversational expression sound

神

ㄕㄣˊ

(shén)

God

餅乾

ㄅㄧㄥˇ ㄍㄢ

(bǐng gān)

cookie

部落格❶

ㄅㄨˋ ㄌㄨㄛˋ ㄍㄜˊ

(bù luò gé)

blog

縫製

ㄈㄥˊ ㄓˋ

(féng zhì)

to sew, to make (clothes)

衣服

ㄧ ㄈㄨˊ

(yī fú)❷

clothes

縫

ㄈㄥˊ

(féng)

to sew

用

ㄩㄥˋ

(yòng)

to use, to employ, to have to

花

ㄏㄨㄚ

(hūa)

to spend (verb), flower (noun)

磚塊烤爐

ㄓㄨㄢ ㄎㄨㄞˋ ㄎㄠˇ ㄌㄨˋ

(zhūan kuài)(kǎo lù)

brick oven

電影

ㄉㄧㄢˋ ㄧㄥˇ

(diàn yǐng)

movie

炒麵

ㄔㄠˇ ㄇㄧㄢˋ

(chǎo miàn)

fried noodles

逛街

ㄍㄨㄤˋ ㄐㄧㄝ

(guàng jiē)

window shop

聖誕節

ㄕㄥˋ ㄉㄢˋ ㄐㄧㄝˊ

(shèng dàn jié)

Christmas

禮物

ㄌㄧˇ ㄨˋ

(lǐ wù)

gift

整理

ㄓㄥˊ ㄌㄧˇ

(zhéng lǐ)

to arrange, to tidy up, to sort out

晚餐

ㄨㄢˇ ㄘㄢ

(wǎn cān)

evening meal

If you want to say you have completed a project, you use the word 完成 ㄨㄢˊ ㄔㄥˊ (wán chéng).

You can also say you have completed something by saying the verb followed by 好了 ㄏㄠˇ ㄌㄜ˙ (hǎo le.)

我洗完了車子噢。

(我)(洗)(完)(了)(車子)(噢)

The sentence above actually implies a greater amount of washing, suggesting that the car just washed was one of several cars washed. The next very similar sentence is more indicative of having finished washing one car.

我洗好了車子噢。

(我)(洗)(好了)(車子)(噢)

(ㄨㄛˇ) (ㄒㄧˇ) (ㄏㄠˇ ㄌㄜ˙) (ㄔㄜ ㄗ˙) (ㄡ)

(wǒ)(xǐ)(hǎo le.)(chē zi.)(ō)

(I)(to wash)(to complete)(car)(conversational expression sound)

I finished washing the car.

This grammar can be used for verbs when something is made also, but 完成了 ㄨㄢˊ ㄔㄥˊ ㄌㄜ˙ (wán chéng le.) should not be used for actions that did not involve making something.

For finishing things, we might also speak of spending time, so I could say something like,

…..(可能)(晚)(餐)(以後)(我)(會)(讀)(完)(了)

I still haven’t finished reading this book, maybe after dinner I will finish reading it.

But for now I CAN say,

我寫完了這個部落格！

(我)(寫)(完)(了)(這)(個)(部落格)

(ㄨㄛˇ) (ㄒㄧㄝˇ) (ㄨㄢˊ) (ㄌㄜ˙) (ㄓㄜˋ) (ㄍㄜ˙) (ㄅㄨˋ ㄌㄨㄛˋ ㄍㄜˊ)

(wǒ)(xiě)(wán)(le.)(zhè)(ge.)(bù luò gé)

(I)(to write)(to complete)(emphasize completion)(this)(MW)(blog)

I have finished writing this blog!

我寫好了這個部落格！

(我)(寫)(好了)(這)(個)(部落格)

(ㄨㄛˇ) (ㄒㄧㄝˇ) (ㄏㄠˇ ㄌㄜ˙) (ㄓㄜˋ) (ㄍㄜ˙) (ㄅㄨˋ ㄌㄨㄛˋ ㄍㄜˊ)

(wǒ)(xiě)(hǎo le.)(zhè)(ge.)(bù luò gé)

(I)(to write)(to complete)(this)(MW)(blog)

I have finished writing this blog!

我完成了這個部落格！

(我)(完成)(了)(這)(個)(部落格)

(ㄨㄛˇ) (ㄨㄢˊ ㄔㄥˊ) (ㄌㄜ˙) (ㄓㄜˋ) (ㄍㄜ˙) (ㄅㄨˋ ㄌㄨㄛˋ ㄍㄜˊ)

(wǒ)(wán chéng)(le.)(zhè)(ge.)(bù luò gé)

(I)(to complete)(emphasize completion)(this)(MW)(blog)

I have finished this blog!

Notes:

❶ This is what is known as a “sound word,” being borrowed from another language (English is this case) and formed from Chinese characters that come close to representing the original sounds according to how Chinese speakers hear sounds.

❷ Sometimes the tone of the second character here, 服 ㄈㄨˊ (fú), is treated more as a neutral tone in Chinese-English dictionaries, but to my ear, it still makes a difference to know that it is a second tone to say it right.

❸ This first time, I am breaking down the translation for 好了 ㄏㄠˇ ㄌㄜ˙ (hǎo le.) more fully and literally, but after this I will just show the translation as “to complete”.

❹ Remember that when you add the adjective marker 的 ㄉㄜ˙ (de.) to a pronoun it makes it possessive.

❺ It takes some practice to remember when to use measure words with numbers and when not to. For instance, when speaking of particular months, measure words are not used, as in 六月 June. However, if you are referring to a total of 6 months you say 六個月。Then there is potential confusion because the (ge.) is not added for every type of “time” unit. In the first of this pair of sentences, it is proper to use the (ge.) after the word 星期 (xīng qí), meaning “week,” to say three weeks, but it is not right to use it after the word 年 (nián), meaning year, to say one year. It does not depend on the number cited, but on the time unit being referred to.

❻ You will notice that the 我 ㄨㄛˇ (wǒ) here is still translated as “my” even though the adjective marker 的 ㄉㄜ˙(de.) does not come until after the final adjective in the list, in this case 新 ㄒㄧㄣ(xīn).